


Whole New (Human) Life

by regenderate



Series: Nothing in This World but You For Me [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 12:26:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16597895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regenderate/pseuds/regenderate
Summary: She would need another nightstand, she realized. If the Doctor was going to stay. Another nightstand, and probably another dresser, or at least something else with space for clothes. Rose had so many clothes that her own dresser was overflowing. She didn’t really think the Doctor would need that much space, but she didn’t know what the Doctor would be like now. Especially when she was half Donna Noble, and Rose didn’t know whether Donna Noble was the type to shop.--AU in which 9 regenerated right into 13. Blatant and unabashed excuse for 13/Rose domestic fluff. This is part of a series in which I will eventually flesh out what season 2 looks like with 13 instead of 10 and also in which I will write more 13/Rose domestic fluff.





	Whole New (Human) Life

**Author's Note:**

> series title is from the song "You For Me" by Terra Naomi. it's a very cute song.
> 
> also DISCLAIMER: I am very American and if the British English is a bit off that's why! I know I'm a little hit-or-miss in the narration but I hope I've at least got the characters speaking naturally

The Doctor was gone.

Rose had to say it to herself, over and over and over.

The Doctor was gone, and in her place was this…  _ human _ Doctor, this Doctor who was half the Doctor and half Donna Noble, half the woman Rose loved more than anything and half a woman Rose didn’t even know.

She was standing on the beach, her eyes still on the space that the TARDIS had just vacated, and next to her there was the human Doctor, still holding her hand.

She looked up at the new Doctor. The new Doctor was looking at her, concern on her face. One of the things Rose had loved about the Doctor had been the genuine nature of her facial expressions; it was good to know that that hadn’t changed.

“Well, then,” Rose said. “Guess we’ve got a lot to work out.”

“Guess so,” the Doctor said.

“Well, could you do it at home?” Rose’s mum asked. “I’m tired.”

“How’re we going to get back there?” Rose asked, turning around to face her mum. “This is Norway, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Let’s get a hotel,” her mum said. “I’ll call your dad.”

“All right,” Rose said. She turned to the not-Doctor. “Welcome to Pete’s World. Also known as your world, now.”

“Bad Wolf Bay,” the not-Doctor said. “I never saw it before. This is where you were when I--”

“Yeah,” Rose said, cutting her off. She didn’t really need to relive the last time she had been here. “Popped you out right here. Fitting, I guess. To come back.”

“Suppose so,” the Doctor agreed. 

Rose turned back to her mum, who was holding her phone to her ear.

“Come on, Mum,” she said. “Let’s go. You can talk to Dad on the way.”

“He’s not answering anyway,” Rose’s mum said, flipping her phone shut. “Don’t know what he’s good for.”

“We’ll probably want to catch a plane anyway,” Rose said. “It’s a bit far for him to drive all this way.”

“All right, then.” Her mum started walking, and Rose and the Doctor followed. They were still holding hands, which Rose somehow found comforting. It was still the Doctor’s hand that she was holding; actually, the hand part of this Doctor was maybe more the Doctor’s than the real Doctor’s real hand. In any case, it felt solid, and it felt familiar, and warm, and Rose thought maybe she could do this.

“You’re going to have to change your name,” Rose said.

“Why?” the Doctor asked.

“You’re human now,” Rose said. “You’re going to need something for paperwork. Can’t very well be the Doctor when you’re trying to get health care from a real doctor.”

“I am a real doctor!” the Doctor said.

“Still,” Rose said. “Do you know what to do if you break your leg?”

“Splint it up until I can get the TARDIS to deal with it,” the Doctor said.

“Yeah,” Rose said, “you need a new name.”

“Fine,” the Doctor said. “Jane Smith.”

“You want to be Jane Smith,” Rose repeated, disbelieving.

“Why not?” the Doctor said.

“This is your  _ name _ , Doctor. Your forever name. You’re going to be stuck with whatever you choose.”

“Well, I don’t have a better surname, so I’m keeping Smith,” the Doctor said. “And for a first name-- how about Joan?”

“That’s a bit better,” Rose said. “You feel like a Joan?”

“I don’t feel like much of anything,” the Doctor said. “Course, I don’t much feel like a Doctor, either, so I suppose it doesn’t really matter. I’m half Donna, you know. There’s all this Donna inside of me. It’s very new. I haven’t decided whether to ignore it yet.”

“Joan it is, then,” said Rose, conveniently sidestepping the part about Donna. She didn’t want to think about that quite yet. “And you’re sure about-- about the part where you live with me?”

“If you’ll have me,” the Doctor said. 

“I will,” Rose said. “It’s going to take some getting used to, mind.”

“I expect so,” the Doctor said. “Only one heart. I always wondered how you humans stood it.”

“Guess you get to find out,” Rose said. “It helps that we usually do much less running.”

“Ugh. I forgot how boring human life was.” There was a pause. “I changed my mind,” the Doctor said. “I don’t feel like a Joan.”

“Well,” Rose told her, “I’ll keep calling you the Doctor, and when you figure something out, let me know.”

“Sounds like a plan,” the Doctor said. “How about Jeannie? Or Jean?”

“You don’t have to go with something that comes from John,” Rose said, amused.

“Oh!” the Doctor exclaimed. “You’re right! I can do anything! Be anyone! Alice, maybe?”

“I’m not sure you’re an Alice,” Rose said.

“Yeah, you’re right,” the Doctor said. “Maybe an Elizabeth. Although-- now that I think about it, not a chance.”

Rose laughed.

“Maybe we’ll put you down as a Jane for now,” she mused. “You can always change it.”

“Fair enough,” the Doctor said. “I’ll take it. Jane. Hm. Definitely not me.”

“Definitely not,” Rose agreed. “There might not be a human name for you.”

“I’ll keep experimenting,” the Doctor said. 

“Keep me posted,” Rose said.

They had gotten out to the road. Rose’s mum still hadn’t said anything, which was maybe  a first for her; she was very deliberately walking in front of Rose and the Doctor in a way that Rose realized was probably some form of courtesy.

“Where to now?” she asked, looking up and down the empty road. 

“City’s that way,” her mum said. “But I’m not walking! I’m too old for this, I am.”

“Shouldn’t have come with us, then,” Rose said. “Come on.”

“How far to the nearest town, then?” the Doctor asked.

“Couple miles,” Rose said. 

“I miss my TARDIS,” the Doctor said.

“Me, too,” Jackie complained.

Rose rolled her eyes.

“Come on, you two,” she said. “You’ve got legs. Use ‘em.”

And they started walking along the edge of the road in what they hoped was the direction of the nearest town.

It took a little under an hour to get there, during which they mostly walked in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. They found a little motel in town, at which the clerk spoke enough English and the Doctor, for some unknown but unsurprising reason, spoke enough Norwegian that they were able to get a room. Jackie complained about the cost-- “Really,” she said, “she couldn’t have dropped us back home?” --but there was nothing to be done, and they all piled into the little room.

“You two had better be all right with sharing a bed,” Rose’s mum said. “I need my space.”

Rose rolled her eyes.

“Of course you do, Mum,” she said. “You good with that, Doctor?”

“I’m not one to complain,” the Doctor said. 

“We don’t even have pajamas,” Rose’s mum continued. “Going to have to sleep in my clothes, I am.”

“I think you’ll survive,” Rose said, flinging herself back onto one of the beds. She looked up at the ceiling. There was something peaceful about the blankness above her. Usually, blank white surfaces only reminded her of that awful, awful Torchwood wall, but now, with the new Doctor here, it felt like a beginning.

The Doctor flopped down next to her.

“I might be a Margaret,” she said. “Or a Maggie.”

“Could be,” Rose said. 

“Doesn’t seem likely,” the Doctor said.

“Are you going to be doing this all night?” Rose’s mum asked. “Some of us have to sleep, you know.”

“Ha, you’re going to have to sleep properly now!” Rose laughed. “You’re going to have to go to bed  _ every single night _ . Like a human!”

“Shut up,” the Doctor said, but Rose could hear the smile in her voice.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Rose’s mum said. “If I can’t have pajamas, I can at least have a shower. You two don’t cause any trouble.”

“Like the two of us would ever cause trouble,” the Doctor said, her head flopping to the side to grin at Rose. Rose turned her head to grin back, and she heard her mum sigh as she went into the bathroom.

“So this is us, now, then,” Rose said. “Not causing trouble. Sharing beds in motels. You all right with that?”

“Not really,” the Doctor said, as honest as she had always been. “But I haven’t got a choice, now, have I? No TARDIS.” She paused. “And if I’ve got to live this long, slow,  _ boring _ human life, I suppose I’d rather live it with you.”

Rose felt a smile flutter to her face as she heard the shower turn on in the background. She wasn’t expecting it, but she couldn’t stop the happiness that was filling her, all of a sudden. 

“Me, too,” she said. 

“Brilliant,” the Doctor said, with the complete focus with which she said everything important. She jumped up, looked around for a moment, then sat back down on the bed. “Sorry. Usually when I say that it’s time to run somewhere.”

Rose laughed.

“You’re going to have to get used to sitting still,” she said.

“No coat anymore, either,” the Doctor said, looking critically at the place where her undershirt met the sleeve of her blue T-shirt. “Shame. I used to love how the coat flapped.”

“We can get you a new coat,” Rose said, pushing herself up to rest on her elbows.

“Nah,” the Doctor said. “Not the same, now I’m human. It’s a whole new life. Not really a coat kind of life.” She flashed a grin at Rose. “I’m keeping the braces, though.”

“You’re going to have to start wearing completely different shirts every day, you know,” Rose said. “None of this same shirt, different colors thing.”

“That’s all right,” the Doctor said. “Most of those shirts were TARDIS-replicated, anyway. No more TARDIS. I’ll have to buy my own shirts.” She leaned forward, her expression as serious as if she had been talking about how to face down an alien threat. “Rose, you have to help me. I don’t know at all what sorts of things humans wear.”

“Well, you’re not much bigger than me,” Rose said. “You can wear my things when we get back, and then we’ll go find stuff that fits you. We can go to a charity shop again.”

The Doctor grinned. 

“Oh, yes,” she said, leaning back to lie next to Rose again. “I like charity shops.”

“You’re a cheap date,” Rose teased. 

“Well, it’s a good thing,” the Doctor said, “since I haven’t got any money.”

“We’ll get you a job soon enough,” Rose said. “How do you feel about working with aliens?”

“Think I’ve got enough experience?” the Doctor asked, nudging Rose.

“Shut up,” Rose said, laughing. She flopped back onto the pillows. “Seriously, I forgot how nice it was to be with you.”

“Me too,” the Doctor said, and Rose felt the Doctor’s hand brush against hers. She took it, lacing their fingers together.

“I’m glad,” Rose said. “I know-- I know you’re not her, I know you’re different, but-- having you here, it’s… it’s something I sort of never dreamed of.”

“Me either,” the Doctor said. “Of course, on my account, I can blame it on not having existed until about eight hours ago.”

Rose laughed again, looking at the Doctor, whose hair was falling all over her face as she met Rose’s eyes with a grin. And before, kissing the Doctor had been a risk, and a risk that Rose had taken once or twice, but certainly not an everyday occurrence. It had meant a commitment that she knew the Doctor couldn’t make. But now, it was pretty well established that Rose and this Doctor were going to be together in a very human way, and it was only a bit of a thrill combined with the overwhelming feeling of being  _ right  _ when Rose rolled onto her side and kissed the Doctor, her eyes sliding closed as the Doctor’s hand came to rest on her waist. 

The kiss was long and sweet and Rose never wanted it to end, but then she imagined what her mum would say if she walked back in on this and pulled away to see the Doctor’s sparkling eyes only centimeters from her own. 

“What’d you stop for?” the Doctor asked.

“My mum’s in the bathroom,” Rose hissed. “I’m not about to do anything I don’t want her to walk in on.”

“Mothers,” the Doctor said. “I suppose now I have to pay attention to them.”

“Yep,” Rose said, and she gave the Doctor another quick peck just because she could. “Let’s see if there’s anything good on the telly.” She sat up and scrambled to the end of the bed, trying to reach the table with the TV remote without having to actually get up. 

They flipped through some channels, settling on some awful sci-fi that Rose just put on so that she could watch the Doctor yell at it-- things like, “These people have clearly never seen a real alien,” and, “That’s not anything like real time travel.”

Rose grinned to hear it, curled up against the Doctor’s chest, the Doctor’s arm around her. When her mum came out of the bathroom and saw them like that, she rolled her eyes, but she didn’t say anything for perhaps the first time in Rose’s life. Instead, she got into bed and steadfastly ignored the telly (and the Doctor’s remarks, and Rose’s giggles), a pillow over her head. Rose was grateful-- her mum was clearly trying to give them a little bit of space.

An hour or so later, she turned off the telly, but she and the Doctor stayed pressed close to each other, only shifting enough to be in a better position for sleep. Lying there, her ear pressed close to the Doctor’s one heartbeat, a hand curled around one of the Doctor’s suspenders, Rose was almost completely content. Even with her mum snoring in the background. 

As she drifted off, Rose realized that she still wasn’t sure what she thought of this whole human-Doctor-in-her-universe thing, of having a whole new person with all the same memories and mannerisms as her Doctor, but if it meant she got more nights like this, all curled up in this new Doctor’s arms, it couldn’t be half bad. 

(Especially if next time they could have the room to themselves.)

They got on a last-minute flight the next day, with more grumbling from Rose’s mum about the cost, even though the Tyler family in this universe was never exactly hurting for money. 

“I’ve never done this before,” the Doctor said, as they were waiting in line to board.

“Really?” Rose asks. 

“I’ve done airplanes,” the Doctor said. “And I don’t care for them. But I’ve never been a regular passenger on a commercial flight or anything. Do you think they’ll give us peanuts?”

Rose laughed and took the Doctor’s hand, squeezing it once before letting go. She and the Doctor had talked about it earlier, over breakfast, and they had made the decision to be careful about affection in public-- the Doctor was fairly oblivious to what homophobia was like in the 21st century, but Rose read the news, and she wasn’t about to take any risks. Part of her ached for the future, when people had assumed that she and the Doctor were wives without a second thought, before either of them had even realized the other’s feelings. 

But a part of her, she realized as the plane landed, was glad to be home, even a parallel home, with her mum and dad and baby Tony. Her dad picked them up at the airport and hugged her tight. Rose did her best to explain the situation before he dropped her and the Doctor off at her flat.

“Oh, you’ve got your own place,” the Doctor said, thrilled, as her dad drove away. “That’s brilliant! Do you have a sofa?”

“Wait and see,” Rose said, leading the Doctor up the stairs. “It’s not a big place. It’s just me living here, you know.”

She unlocked the door and pushed it open, hoping the place wasn’t too much of a mess. It wasn’t, really; in the past few months, she had barely been around, anyway. She had been too busy shooting herself into other universes, spending a few days in one, a few hours in another, weeks and weeks in Donna’s. There was a blanket draped askew over the sofa, and some books and a laptop computer still out on the table from the morning before Rose had gotten the dimension cannon working.

“You do have a sofa!” the Doctor exclaimed, immediately sitting down on it. “Very comfy.”

“Thanks,” Rose said. “Listen, Doctor, I’m going to take a shower, and then I can help you find some clothes, all right?” 

“Sure,” the Doctor said. “I’ll be here, on the sofa. Got anything to read?”

Rose went over to the table and picked up the first book on top. It was a study someone had done about aliens in the UK-- she had been reading it for her job at Torchwood, before she had more or less dropped that to go around looking for the Doctor.

“You can try this,” she said, walking over to the couch. “It’s about aliens.”

“Ooh, yes,” the Doctor said. “Love aliens.” She took the book from Rose. “Am I going to live here now?”

“Don’t know where else you’d go,” Rose said. “Don’t mind having you around. We’ll have to get you a job, mind. I’m not having you sit around here all day.”

“I’m not having that, either,” the Doctor said. “I’m terrible at sitting. I’ve got to  _ do  _ things.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Rose said, and leaned over on an impulse, kissing the top of the Doctor’s head before going into her bedroom to find new clothes. She felt very domestic, doing that. She was domestic now, apparently.

Looking into her closet, she pulled clothes for herself, but also a few things she thought the Doctor might like-- nothing that was really her style, of course, but trousers with too many pockets, a couple of T shirts, a button-down. Rose didn’t really know what a human version of the Doctor would wear, anyway. 

As she moved away from the closet, she surveyed the room. Her queen size bed with the purple bedspread, her alarm clock perched on her white nightstand, the glow-in-the-dark stars and planets that she had glued to the ceiling one day when she had been particularly sad about not being able to see the real thing in person anymore. 

She would need another nightstand, she realized. If the Doctor was going to stay. Another nightstand, and probably another dresser, or at least something else with space for clothes. Rose had so many clothes that her own dresser was overflowing. She didn’t really think the Doctor would need  _ that _ much space, but she didn’t know what the Doctor would be like now. Especially when she was half Donna Noble, and Rose didn’t know whether Donna Noble was the type to shop. 

(It would be nice if she were, Rose mused-- Rose would love shopping with the Doctor, trying things on, picking things out for each other. Part of her hoped that the human Doctor might love that too.)

She showered, scrubbing all the dirt of the other universe off her skin. This was her home now-- she had a job that gave her some of the adventure she sought, and a family, and the promise of love, which was all that she could ask for. She could miss the other universe, and she could grieve for the life that she could have led there, but now she had to move forward with her life here.

She dried herself off and got dressed. She looked at herself in the mirror, hair still damp behind her ears, face free of makeup, the sleeves of her too-big jumper rolled up. Back in the old days, she never would have dressed like this in front of the Doctor, or anyone, really. But… things had changed, she had grown as a person, and if she was going to live with this new Doctor for the rest of her life, as seemed increasingly likely, she wasn’t about to be ashamed of her bare face.

She left the bathroom and went through her bedroom back into the main living area, where the Doctor was nowhere to be seen.

“Doctor?” Rose asked, looking around.

The Doctor’s face popped up above the kitchen counter.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’ve just been upgrading the stove. It does six different types of boiling now.”

“You-- what?” Rose asked.

“Oh, and I’ve thought of a name.” 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” the Doctor said. “Penelope. You like it?”

Rose grinned. 

“It suits you,” she said. “Still keeping Smith?”

“Think so,” the Doctor-- well, Penelope, now-- decided. “Maybe Penny for short. I met the original, you know. Nice woman. Very clever. Bit overwhelmed at the time, with all the battle happening around her. Didn’t really care for her husband.”

“Penny,” Rose repeated. “I think I like it. Do you want me to call you that?”

“I think so. Not really the Doctor anymore, am I? Not without the TARDIS or the time travel. It’d be a bit awkward to still have her name.” She ducked back behind the stove, and Rose walked around to find the oven open and the newly named Penelope’s entire torso inside, facing upwards. 

“You’d better not break it,” she said.

“Not a chance,” Penelope said, her voice muffled. “I’m good with this stuff.”

“‘Course you are,” Rose said. “Just as long as you remember I’ve got to cook on it still.”

Penelope popped out of the oven. 

“I remember,” she said. “You’ve got everything you had before, don’t worry. You just turn this dial--” and she pointed to a brand new dial, possibly made from the cap off the milk with numbers written in permanent marker-- “and you get your different types of boiling. See? I’ve just got to close everything off and it’s done.”

“You did all this while I was in the shower?” Rose asked.

“You took ages!” Penelope said. “I had to do  _ something. _

“This really is going to be a long, slow life for you, isn’t it,” Rose said. 

“Not if you let me at your refrigerator,” Penelope said. Rose kept having to stop herself from saying “the Doctor” in her head. “I’m pretty sure I can make it keep things fresh for at  _ least  _ twice as long.”

“Let’s find you some clothes first,” Rose said.

“That wasn’t a no,” Penelope said, standing up.

“Well, if you’re going to live here, I can resign myself to a certain amount of messing about with my things,” Rose said. “It’s not like I know my way around a refrigerator, anyway.”

“Refrigerator later,” Penelope said. “I do listen to you, I promise.”

Rose laughed and took Penelope’s hand, leading her into the bedroom.

“This is your room!” Penelope exclaimed. “I love it. Are those planets?”

Rose turned back and saw Penelope gazing open-mouthed at the ceiling.

“Yeah,” she said, quietly. “I always missed traveling, you know? Figured this was the next best thing.”

“I love it,” Penelope said, looking back at Rose. Rose opened the closet, then turned to pick the clothes she had pulled earlier up off the bed.

“I thought you might like these,” she said. “You don’t have to wear any of it, I suppose. And we can always wash what you’re wearing now.”

“No, I’ll change,” Penelope said. “Change is good. Got to get used to change.” She held up the trousers. “Oh, pockets!” 

“Thought you might like it,” Rose said.

Penelope picked out a T shirt and the button-down, and then she said, “Can I use your shower?”

“If you’re going to live here,” Rose said, “you had better get used to using the shower.”

“I keep forgetting I’m going to live here,” Penelope said. “It’s-- it’s-- it’s very new. In a good way, I think. I’m excited. We’re going to have so much fun.”

Rose grinned and pushed Penelope.

“Go shower,” she said. “I’ll try not to upgrade anything while you’re gone.”

“I won’t,” Penelope said over her shoulder. “Get ready for eight different colors of water.”

Rose rolled her eyes as the bathroom door closed. She fell back onto her bed, looking up at the stars and planets. For once, she didn’t mind that the real ones were so far away.

They spent the rest of the day going from charity shop to charity shop, looking for more clothes for Penelope (who looked just a little out of place in Rose’s things). Rose noticed that her hair had dried with a bit of a curl, and she seemed more grounded than the Doctor ever had. But that was good, Rose thought-- Penelope  _ wasn’t _ the Doctor, but, as Rose watched her try on different styles of shirt, trousers, braces, even going so far as to attempt a skirt at one point, she realized that this was exactly what she had always wanted. She could be happy like this, with Penelope, grinning away at her over dinner, or looking at her with stars in her eyes as they walked home. 

“I can’t believe you’ve gone domestic,” Rose said, bumping shoulders with Penelope as the two of them were hanging up Penelope’s new clothes.

“Neither can I, really,” Penelope answered. “I think I like it.”

Rose turned towards Penelope and kissed her, pulling away with a grin.

“I think I like  _ you _ ,” she said.

Penelope kissed her again.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah I know this has like next to no actual conflict over the Doctor being all new or whatever but like ??? I'm just here to write domestic fluff. someone else can do the angst version of this AU but I'm sticking to "everyone is happy"


End file.
